Physical
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First edition. [2], 5-6, 202 ff., 230:175 mm., wide margins, light age and damp staining, title repaired, stamps on several ff. A good copy bound in modern half cloth and marbled paper boards.
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Detailed
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Kabbalsitic homilies by R. Baruch ben Abraham Kosover. The title page describes Amud ha-Avodah as part two of Yesod ha-Emunah, a considerably smaller work printed the same year, also in Czernowitz. Amud ha-Avodah has a page of approbations and an index followed by the text, which is partially printed on bluish paper. It has an introduction from R. Baruch followed by an explanation of unfamiliar terms and the text. Amud ha-Avodah, in contrast to Yesod ha-Emunah, which is on the Pentateuch and miscellanies, is on the basic questions of Kabbalah, and explains the essence of spiritual entities. Although written in about 1763 it was not printed until 1854.
R. Baruch ben Abraham of Kosov (Kosover, c. 1725/30–1795) was a noted kabbalist. He was a disciple of R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk and also studied with R. Menahem Mendel of Przemyslany for a short while. R. Baruch became Maggid in Kosov. In his sermons he tried to make the kabbalist doctrine, as taught mainly by R. Isaac Luria and R. Hayyim Vital, easily comprehensible by the use of explanatory metaphors. According to R. Baruch, R. Luria was the highest authority on Kabbalah. Therefore, he advised all who wished to study the Zohar, first to read R. Luria and R. Vital.R. Baruch interpreted (as did R. oseph Ergas) R. Luria’s doctrine of zimzum (i.e., God's self-willed withdrawal), as a metaphor and not as an actual fact. On this point he argued against the realistic interpretation of R. Immanuel Hai Ricchi. Baruch taught that the true life of every material entity was conditioned by its spiritual aspect. He therefore contended that full surrender and complete attachment to God was possible because this was an intellectual discipline originating in a love which knows no limits. He maintained that it was possible to attain a concept of things, first through the senses, then on a higher level, through the imagination, and finally, at the highest stage, through wisdom. It was only through wisdom that one could perceive the spiritual quality inherent in every material being. Only wisdom had the capacity to feel the pain which the soul inevitably felt when man committed a sin. Baruch conceded that the questions of predestination and free will were so difficult as to be unanswerable. Nevertheless he believed in both, and counseled unconditional belief in them (Ammud ha-Avodah, 54–55, 107; Yesod ha-Emmunah, 76–99). R. Baruch was totally and aggressively against the followers of Shabbetai Zevi and Jacob Frank. In 1760 his antagonism to the latter apparently motivated him to begin writing his books with the aim of refuting the anthropomorphism applied by Frankists to the basic concepts of Kabbalah. From 1761 he had started to collect from learned authorities their written commentaries on the manuscripts of his books. However, it was only in 1854 that they were actually printed in Czernowitz:
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